Lightning Memories
by AnimeFreak218
Summary: Team Gai's 1st C rank mission & no Gai. Takes place befor the rookie 9 are assigned. Theres a storm during the fight and Tenten seems on edge. Neji gets into some trouble and almost dies. How will this all turn out? rated T for language. bad summary i kno


**Long oneshot… I had this idea when… I was doin skool work, utterly bored & lookin 4 a way 2 procrastinate, when it started 2 storm & we lost power. I have a laptop so I wrote this since 'it was too dark to do hw' LMAO**

**ENJOY!!! R&R! im always lookin 4 ways 2 edit my stories**

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CRACK! FLASH! BOOM!

Tenten winced, her muscles tightening. _"Why? Why tonight? Why me?"_ she thought as she fought back the memories trying to resurface.

Team Gai was on their first C-rank mission, to kill a group of rouge ninja that had been wreaking havoc in a nearby village in the Land of Fire. Gai-sensei was on another mission so the three 13 year olds were alone. Though they had only been a team for 6 months, they had been through a lot and had found the balance in their skills. But now it was April, storm season, and tonight was the first storm of the year.

Team Gai were currently sitting around their campfire. They still were a day away from the village and had set camp for the night. They were just finishing their dinner of fish from a nearby river when the storm had started.

Neji raised an eyebrow at his teammate's reaction to the lightning. _"Is Tenten was afraid of lightning? She can't be. She's a kunoichi! A ninja doesn't show fear."_ Neji (the baka) thought.

CRACK! FLASH! BOOM!

Tenten's eye's widened and she immediately stood. "I'm going to head in. Wake me when it's my turn to watch." she muttered and turned to leave.

"Tenten." called out Neji (no –chan? This must be bad.).

Tenten froze but didn't turn around to face him. _"I can't let them think I'm weak. Especially Neji" _she thought.

"Your irrational fear could be a hindrance on the mission. Learn to control yourself." Neji almost snapped.

"IT"S NOT IRRATIONAL!" yelled Tenten as she whipped around to face Neji. Her eyes burned with anger and… pain? "& I am in control of myself." she muttered and she turned on her heel and went into her tent.

The boys just sat in silence, but then Lee stood up.

"You shouldn't have said anything. To be truly afraid of something and face it head on, it takes a lot of courage that not many have. But Tenten seems to be able to." was all Lee said before retreating into his own tent. At that point it started to rain.

**The next day…**

They were currently fighting off the rouge ninja. The good news was that Team Gai was stronger than these apparently Genin level ninja (chuunin my ass). The bad new was that instead of the 4 or 5 that were expected to make up the group, there were close to 20. Oh and the storm was still raging on from last night.

CRACK! FLASH! BOOM!

Lightning struck overhead. The rain had drenched the shinobi but they didn't care. What was a little water when you were fighting for your life?

Tenten hadn't spoken since last night and neither boy's dared to say anything to her. Her motions were more ridged than normal and she seemed tenser, but it didn't seem to affect her fighting.

After what seemed like hours of fighting, they were down to 4 ninja. Tenten and Lee were each going one on one leaving Neji the remaining two. Tenten took down her opponent easily and turned towards where Neji was fighting to go and assist him. He had flung one of the two into the bushes nearby with his Kaiten, and killed the other ninja when it happened.

CRACK! FLASH! BOOM!

Lightning tore down from the sky and hit one of the trees near Neji. To Tenten, who was running towards her teammate, the tree that was at least a foot and a half wide seemed to be falling towards Neji in slow motion. Neji was exhausted and injured from his last attacker, and couldn't move quickly enough. He could only look up wide eyed as the falling tree coming down towards him. It was going to crush him, kill him at this rate. His eyes widened as he realized he was going to die.

"NEJI!" was all he heard someone yell from what sounded like so far away and the next thing he knew he was flying through the air. "oof' and he was on his back on the ground, looking up at the storm clouds.

"_I'm alive?"_ he thought as he tried to collect his thought. Neji slowly and painfully stood and turned towards where he had been standing just moments ago. There was the tree, on the ground. It was on fire where the lightning had broken through the trunk but the rain seemed to be putting it out. Then he saw. He saw why he was still alive.

"TENTEN!" he called out as his mind cleared and his brain registered what the figure under the fallen tree was. He quickly made his way over to her fallen figure in what seemed almost like a drunken walk.

She was breathing, was the first thing he noticed when he saw her. As he made it to her side he saw that her left leg and right foot were the only parts of her trapped under the tree. She had pushed him out of the way, but wasn't able to completely make it out from under the tree herself.

"De-sha-vu." he heard her mutter.

"_She's still conscious?! Her leg must be crushed under the tree!"_ Neji thought almost in a panic. Tenten was conscious, but barely and she seemed to be in too much pain to notice her surroundings. Suddenly he saw a kunai heading straight for Tenten's head. _"The last ninja!"_ he realized and he fell in front of her in a protective position and waited for the kunai to hit his back, being to exhausted to be able to block it properly.

But it never came. After a moment Neji tilted his head up to see none other than Rock Lee holding the kunai in his hand inches from him. "I'll get the last one. Watch our flower!" he said as he did the Gai pose and ran off.

After Lee ran off Neji looked down at Tenten to see she had fallen unconscious. After Lee was finished, they carefully remover her from under the tree and made camp a little ways away from the bloody battle field.

They tried to help the best they could, but Tenten was the most skilled as far as healing on the team and they were afraid to move her too much, as it seemed to cause her great pain.

Tenten woke up that night, to find Neji meditating by her side and Lee pacing across the fire from her. It was still raining but they had managed to put up some sort of tent over them and the fire, though Lee was pacing in the rain. Images from what happened before flooded back to her and she sat up to make her consciousness known. She winced at the pain she felt in her left leg and right foot. Both were severely broken, she could tell.

She looked down to see that her sweats had been cut to make sweat-shorts and her leg and foot were wrapped. Not very well, but wrapped. _"At least they didn't take off my pants."_ She thought but sighed anyway since she was going to have to buy knew pants when she got home. She was also uncomfortable showing so much skin but shrugged it off.

"You should lie down. Your leg and foot are very badly broken." Neji said as he opened his eyes and looked at her.

"I'm fine, was the mission successful?" she asked.

"Hai, but that's irrelevant. Tenten your severely injured." Neji stated and Tenten swore she thought she saw concern in his eyes, but it was gone in a flash.

"Gomen." was all she could say as she looked down at her leg. She couldn't move it without severe pain.

"What are you sorry for? You saved my life." said Neji.

Lee was now sitting on the other side of Tenten, being surprisingly quiet. Until…

"You were amazing Tenten-chan! I've never seen you run so fast! You were at least 20 meters away when the lightning struck the tree!" yelled Lee in excitement.

Tenten only smiled. She then reached into her bag and took out her own bandages and started to unwrap her leg to get a better look at the damage.

After a moment of silence and the boys watching her Neji, surprisingly spoke. "Before you passed out you said 'De-sha-vu'. Explain." Neji said, though it sounded more like a demand. That had been bothering him since she had muttered the words and he was determined to find out what she meant.

Tenten's entire body froze and she dropped her wrappings that she had been putting on her leg. After a moment she said, "I don't want to talk about it."

This was not going to fly with Neji, but Lee interjected before he could do anything.

"Tenten-chan, we're your friends! You can tell us anything!' stated Lee.

Tenten sighed, "You're not going to let this go are you?" she asked. Though it was for both of them, she seemed to be directing her question more at Neji since she turned to meet his gaze.

"Hn." he smirked and she took it as a no.

"Hyuuga Neji, Rock Lee, Tenten." she said as she pointed at each person as she said their name, "Notice anything particularly different besides the gender of each person?" she asked.

"No surname. We know you're an orphan Tenten." stated Neji.

"Hai. But do you know why?" she shot back.

They both just stared at her. She picked up her fallen wrappings and continued to try and wrap her legs properly. You could hear thunder far off in the distance. The storm would stop before dawn.

"Your parents died when you were young and you were too little to remember anything including your own surname. Isn't that obvious?" Neji said again in his usual cold way.

"I remember my parents, we just never had a surname." she said & Lee gasped while Neji's eyes just widened slightly.

"They were nomad photographers. They took pictures of nature, traveling from country to country taking pictures. Their favorite, though, was still lightning photos…" Tenten started, "They loved to try and take pictures of lightning, shooting at just the right moment to get a picture of the lightning bolt streaking across the sky hitting its target. Even though they weren't shinobi, I think they used chakra to sense the air change to tell where the lightning was going to hit and when. They almost never missed a shot." Tenten continued. "They used to bring me with them. I always loved to watch the storms, hear the sounds they made, the steady rhythm of their own individual song." she smiled.

"When I was 4 they brought me to the Fire Country in April to take pictures of the big storms we get here. We set up on a hill under an old dead tree. The perfect place to take pictures. It wasn't raining but you could hear the thunder in the distance and see the lightning. After a couple hours of taking pictures, mom decided it was time to go, though the storm hadn't stopped yet. They were packing up when it happened." She said and clenched her hands.

"Lightning struck the dead tree. The tree fell, it was going to crush me and my mom, but…" and she stopped for a moment, "but, my dad pushed me out of the way last minute, trading my life for his. The tree killed my mom instantly, but my dad was still alive and conscious." Tenten closed her eyes, to keep herself from crying, though her voice never wavered.

"The tree caught fire and since the wood was dry and dead, the rain didn't put it out. My dad told me to get away, that there was nothing I could do to save him. He told me he love me and pushed me away… All I could do was sit there and watch him burn alive… I screamed and cried but there was no one to hear me. I stayed by there side for three days before Konoha ANBU found me starving and dehydrated by their bodies. They took me back to the village, but left my parents burnt bodies there, disposing of them as if they were S-ranked criminals. That's why I became a ninja, so I next time, when some one I care for was in trouble, I would be able to save them." said Tenten as she opened her eyes in determination. There was no trace of tears in her eyes, only the fire that follows pain and bring determination.

Done with her wrappings Tenten tried to stand but fell. Lee caught her. "Easy. Gomen Tenten-chan, we had no idea."

"It's not your fault, fate's a bitch." she laughed, back to he old cheerful self. "I got to get back from the village if I want to save my leg."

"I'll carry you." Neji said. Tenten and Lee looked at him in shock, but then Tenten smiled, "Arigato Neji-kun. Gomen that I can't walk."

As the three made there way back to the village, Neji asked another question, "Is that what you meant when you said your fear of lightning wasn't irrational?"

"Hai, though I'm not afraid of lightning. I'm afraid of what the lightning represents. To be completely helpless while someone close to you is in pain or dying. I think that's something we all fear, but we are remined of our own weakness by different thing. The lightning reminds me of that night and the feeling of helplessness as I watched my dad die. When I came to the village the Third told me about ninja and asked if I wanted to enroll in the academy. I figured ninja are the strongest people in all the countries so why not. Pretty stupid I guess." she said in a bland tone.

"No, it's not stupid." Neji said sternly, "Arigato, for saving me."

Tenten gasped, she never expected Neji to thank her, but then smiled. "I'll always be there to cover your back. We're teammates after all."

Another moment of silence the only thing that could be heard was the rain that had severely lessened. Then another question.

"I thought you didn't believe in fate." said Neji referring to her 'fate's a bitch' comment.

"I never said that. I said I didn't believe that fate couldn't be changed, that it was set in stone like you seem to believe. If you haven't noticed, fate seems to be trying to kill me and the people close to me with falling trees and lightning, but this time you and me are both alive. I'd call that defying fate. Wouldn't you?"

"Hn." was Neji's only answer. It was obvious he didn't agree but Tenten was sure he'd come around eventually.

They were a few miles away from the village, it was still lightly raining and dawn would be breaking soon when Tenten asked them to stop.

"What's wrong Tenten? Didn't you say we had to hurry? Are you in pain?" ask Lee.

"I'm fine, I just want to take a little detour." she said as she led the boys a little off course, Neji still carrying her on his back.

"Here." She said as the stepped out of the forest into a clearing. There was a hill will tall grass. "Come on. What are you scared of my parent's ghost?" Tenten teased since neither of the boys had moved.

"Tenten-chan…" Lee said in shock.

"Come on! I want to visit my parents on their anniversary." said Tenten again. This time Team Gai slowly made their way up the hill.

"Anniversary?" asked Neji as the climbed.

"Hai. Of their marriage and their death." she sighed and then surprisingly smiled. Her teammates were in a state of shock to say the least. They had reached the top of the hill and Neji had set Tenten down by the remains of what he could only guess were her parents and the tree. It was really just a large spot of burnt dirt. It was the only place on the hill not covered in tall grass.

"Tenten do you want me to go in the woods and get flowers or something?" asked Lee trying to think of anything he could do for Tenten.

Tenten laughed. "No need Lee, but thanks. I just want to watch the sunrise."

The rain stopped and the sky was getting ready to great the sun for the new day. As the sun peaked over the horizon Tenten whispered, "Happy Anniversary Oka-san, Oto-san. Neji, Lee look."

Then they saw it. The field of tall grass around them started to sprout flowers of all different colors.

"They're a rare type of flower that only blooms after a thunderstorm. My parents called them thunder flowers for their colors." said Tenten in her sing-song voice. "Ironically, my mother once told me she wanted them planted on her grave when she died."

Neither Neji nor Lee knew what to say. They had never seen this side of Tenten before.

As the sun fully rose into the sky Tenten shifted. "Ok we can go home now if you guys want. My leg hurts." She said still smiling.

The boys just nodded their heads and Neji picked Tenten up again, and put her on his back. Tenten looked back once as they entered the woods again, the trees blocking the hill from sight. "Ja ne." she whispered.

After walking in silence for a few minutes Neji had another question, but maybe the most important one yet, "How do you do it?"

"Do what Neji?" Tenten asked frowning confused.

When Neji didn't answer she continued.

"You mean why am I not the female version of you and that Uchiha kid?" Tenten smirked but then frowned and became serious, "I don't know. I **was** cold and distant at first, but I didn't like feeling sad. I hated feeling alone. I wish there was something I could have done back then. But crying won't change the fact that I didn't and couldn't do anything, being sad won't bring them back."

Neji and Lee just shook their heads in agreement to Tenten's statement, but she wasn't done.

"The problem was, we were always so happy. My parents were always saying to live the day like it was your last. The sadder I became, the more distanced I felt from them, and myself." she whispered the last part, "To fill the empty distance I promised myself that I would become stronger, so that next time when someone I cared about was in danger, I would be able to protect them. I went to the academy and made a few friends, and it became easier to smile again."

"I eventually found myself again. Then we were assigned to Team Gai and it was like getting a second chance. Does that answer your question?" Tenten finished.

When Neji didn't respond, she sighed.

They ran the rest of the way in silence. No more questions. No more secrets.

When they reached the village Tenten had to have 2 surgeries on her leg and one on her foot. She was required to stay in the hospital for 2 weeks. Lee and Gai visited her everyday, brought her flowers and a kunai & target so she could practice in bed when she got bored.

But Neji, Neji almost never left her side. He went home maybe three times those whole 2 weeks. He still trained in the back courtyard by Tenten's window, but training wasn't as 'effective' without your partner, and he's be damned if he trained with Gai or Lee. He slept in the chair by her bedside and had his servants bring him clothes and other things he required.

Neji's face was the first thing Tenten saw each time she woke up from her surguries. She would smile and they would either make small talk or sit in silence. Neither of them minded this.

When Tenten's two weeks were up and she was in the clear to start training again, they went straight to their usual training matches and began to spar.

"Yup. My second chance. Everything's back to normal." Tenten whispered to herself as she jumped from the trees to attack the awaiting Hyuuga genius.

And you know what? Then next storm they got, Tenten went out to her parents' hill during the storm to watch the lightning and remember. Remember all the good times they had had watching the lightning. And for the first time since that day, Tenten smiled and watched as the lighting streaked across the sky, and hit its target with accuracy as deadly as hers.

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KK DONE!!! Whaddya think? Please tell me if this is just really gay or pointless or if it's good cuz different people hav different opinions

**R&R!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**


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